Susan Butler
Cell 2 Soul. 2006 Summer; 2(2):a13
- Doctor Stories and Autobiography by AJ Cronin
- A Fortunate Man by John Berger
- Strange Life of Ivan Osokin by P. D. Ouspensky
- The Untouchable by John Banville
- The Penguin Book of Irish Verse edited by Brendan Kennelly
- Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Edward Fitzgerald translation
- A book of one's own favourite artist, to transport one to another world and for balance.
- Portuguese Irregular Verbs by Alexander McCall Smith
- Human Comedy series by Balzac
- A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Because it shows how one mistake made in childhood can hound a life.
I just love these and devoured them when writing Secrets from
the Black Bag.
Ditto, made poignant and ironic by the fact that the GP featured committed suicide later.
Ouspensky's novel about eternal recurrence, because it's a graceful way to absorb provocative concepts outside our usual experiences.
(About the Cambridge spies.) It's so well-written and, like Ouspensky's book, so utterly outside the field of medicine yet evocative of another facet of the human condition.
Just about anything from The Penguin Book of Irish Verse (intro and ed by Brendan Kennelly, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1971), but especially an anonymous, very early poem called 'The old woman of Beare,' translated by Brendan Kennelly. From the Introduction: ' …an extremely moving lament for lost youth and a haunting outcry against the brutal but inevitable ravages of time (p 31).' Let me know if you can't find this and I'll input it into the computer and email it to you. I've loved this poem for 30 years.
Also for the ephemeral nature of human existence.
Humour is so personal, but is perhaps the most important thing on this list. Suggestions: Alexander McCall Smith's Portuguese Irregular Verbs for its gentle, literate humour and Lagniappe’s wonderful, witty book called Famous Last Words.
I would like my doctor to know the books in Balzac's Human Comedy series, as well Chekhov and Dostoevsky.
In late 2005, the editors of Cell 2 Soul and Dermanities launched a new section, "Why Read? — Personal Canons," which is a forum to catalog those works of art which instruct and enrich us as care givers and individuals. We invited some friends, colleagues and teachers to share those they deem canonical — books, poems, the occasional movie to which they keep returning.
The background for these selections is found in a recent editorial entitled: Why Read? An Emerging Canon.
We welcome your Personal Canon. Please click on Canon Guidelines. Kindly follow the format you see here.